Lock by chance

Lock by chanceActor Athiya Shetty wrestles with a door that refuses to budge on the sidelines of an event in Juhu

Sticky businessCHEF and restaurateur Moshe Shek is rather upset. In a long, recent post, he recounted his experience of being summoned to court over a chain of restaurants and its title he sold years ago. It seems the current owner of Moshe’s eponymous cafés violated some rules at its outpost at a Lower Parel mall and was hauled up by the BMC. “I went to the Shindewadi court, in Dadar, to explain to the judge that I had long sold the property, I had nothing to do with it. But once there, I was advised to plead guilty and pay a penalty, or face trial for a few years,” Shek told your diarist over the phone. “I sold my restaurant to a company a long time ago, they have now re-sold it to someone else. I know the current owner but we are not on talking terms,” he said. Shek has now written to the concerned authorities and asked them to remove his name from the licence. But this, after pleading guilty and paying a Rs 13,000 fine.

But first, booksTHE shortlist for the Shakti Bhatt First Book Prize has just been announced and it has on it some truly notable works. The nominees are ‘We That Are Young’ by Preti Taneja, ‘Ants among Elephants’, by Sujatha Gidla, ‘Temporary People’ by Deepak Unnikrishnan, ‘Remnants of a Separation’ by Aanchal Malhotra, ‘The Sensational Life and Death of Qandeel Baloch’ by Sanam Maher, and ‘How to Travel Light’ by Shreevatsa Nevatia. The Shakti Bhatt Foundation says this year’s shortlist chronicles the reflections of the outsider, the one who doesn’t fit in because of sexuality, caste, class, gender or other reasons. This year’s judges are Githa Hariharan, Sampurna Chattarji and Raghu Karnad, and the winner will be announced in November.

Family enterpriseMALINI Akerkar, widely known as the first lady of fine dining in India, hosted the launch of her new enterprise, a jewellery line, at a south Mumbai boutique earlier this week. It turned out to be quite a family affair. Not only was the boutique owner her cousin, but her models were all members of her family — husband Rahul Akerkar’s mum Jinx, his theatre actor sister Avantika, and Malini’s daughters Shaan and Amalia. Of course, Akerkar’s new food company prepared the delectable eats. Guests included Sheena Sippy, Rahul Bose, Zeba Kohli, Kahini Arte Merchant, Deveika Bhojwani, Bonia Bulchandani and Pratima Bhatia.

Mourning, and a new morningON August 15, an international Indian organisation is putting together a massive India Day parade at Madison Avenue in New York. The ‘grand marshall’ of the parade is none other than Kamal Haasan, actor and politician, and guests of honour are Anupam Kher and Sir Vivian Richards. Performances by Kailash Kher, Shibani Kashyap and Shruti Haasan are also included. Haasan has been in the news for the second instalment of his thriller that releases today. At the funeral of politician M Karunanidhi, Haasan made a point to wear black to prove his atheism, much like his just deceased Dravidian hero.

TailpieceIT isn’t just south India, it seems Delhi politicos are not particularly welcome in Maharashtra either. A recent trip to the city by a politician went unnoticed by several of his party men. The minister was here as guest of a local college, but no one from his party was aware of his arrival or its reason. One of them quipped to us: “These Delhi politicians only come to Mumbai to meet Bollywood stars.” Ouch.